I was in the crowd for Durham's last Lord's final, so I know just what a big deal it would be to reach another on Saturday

It’s been a good start to a great week for Durham but a victory on Saturday would top it all off nicely.

It’s been seven years since Chester-le-Street last hosted a semi-final, and this weekend we take on Nottinghamshire for a place in the Royal London Cup final.

I went to the only previous Lord’s final in Durham’s First-Class history as a fan, and it would mean the world to me to get back there as a player.

I wasn’t at the club in 2007, but being at the home of cricket to see us beat Hampshire and lift the Friends Provident Trophy showed how important cricketing success is to our supporters. It was unbelievable being part of last season’s County Championship-winning side, but to play in a showpiece game at a sold-out Lord’s would be something else.

That said, we have got one of the best sides in limited-overs cricket to see off first.

We may have won this week’s four-day game against them, but beating Nottinghamshire in 50-over cricket will be tougher still.

Even without Alex Hales, Notts will have plenty of one-day talent with the likes of Michael Lumb, James Taylor, Samit Patel, Chris Read, Ajmal Shahzad and James Franklin.

We’ve got some pretty big players ourselves, though.

I was gutted for Ben Stokes when he was left out of England’s Twenty20 squad for Sunday, but at least it means he’ll be playing for us against the team he smashed a century against in the group stages.

Paul Collingwood has been our star performer in this year’s 50-over competition, and his experience of the big games will be invaluable. It’ll also be a last home game for John Hastings before he heads to India for the Champions League T20. He will be wanting to sign off in style!

We always fancy our chances of winning at home, but to have a big crowd roaring us on will make a massive difference so if any of you are around this weekend I would urge you to get down to Chester-le-Street and help us make history.

I was suffering a bit yesterday with the sickness bug that’s been hanging around the Durham dressing room for the last couple of weeks, but our 54-run win over Nottinghamshire put the smile back on my face.

There was quite a lot for us to celebrate yesterday.

With Lancashire losing the Roses match, victory took us out of the relegation zone and put our destiny in our own hands.

We’ve got three games left and two wins should guarantee our place in next season’s Division One. As Lancashire have only two matches to play, we might not even need that, but no one in the Durham dressing room will be thinking that way.

There were loads of positives to take from the victory, but one of the biggest was the performance of Peter Chase.

It’s a nervous time when you make your First-Class debut but Peter finished his with 5-64 in the second innings.

Ryan Buckley did the same when he played for Durham for the first time last season, and this time last year Usman Arshad was having a brilliant debut for us too. It just shows what a great set-up we have that young players are able to come into the first team and perform straight away.

Certainly Peter looked completely at home his new environment, and it will be good if we can bring him back for next season.

We set Nottinghamshire what would have been the biggest successful run-chase at Chester-le-Street, but it was still hard work taking the ten wickets we needed. The pitches at Chester-le-Street demand us bowlers to show real patience in the second innings of matches nowadays and I thought all the lads plugged away really well.

The match was set up by Paul Collingwood, leading from the front with a second-innings century.

I was really pleased to help him with 45 of my own in what was another excellent all-round team performance by the lads.

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